Vatican Ambassador (22 page)

BC drifts off. He wakes up with a start.

How long was I asleep? No clock in the room.

BC sits up in bed.

Wow.

Man… I do feel better.

BC gets up off the bed. He goes over to the sink in the room. They’ve provided soap, toothbrush and toothpaste. There’s a towel sitting folded in a small alcove over the sink. He washes and dries his face, brushes his teeth, and straightens out his clothes. BC pulls himself together. He walks to the room’s door, and presses the panel in the wall next to the door.

Let’s see if they’ve locked me in...

The door slides open silently. The corridor outside is mostly gray: gray carpeted floor, gunmetal gray ceiling, gray walls overlaid with white enamel. A thick, navy blue stripe runs waist high along the wall in front of him.

So generic, it could be any civilian or military installation anywhere. Huh.
Anita, Krish and Dell are sitting in three of four gray easy chairs lined up against the wall across the corridor, to BC’s right. They were talking together until BC poked his head out the door. Now they all sit silently, looking at BC.

“Don’t stop on my account,” BC says into the awkward silence that fills the air.

“You made it,” Anita observes.

“Hoping I wouldn’t?” BC cracks.

“No,” Anita sighs, “Come here, sit down.”

BC walks over past Krish, Dell and Anita and sits in the empty chair on the end.

“So, what are you guys, Transpace, the next generation?” BC jokes.

“You laugh... but it is
something
like that. The Transpace Project is where it all began,” Anita says. “It’s just expanded.”

“And we’ve lasted a lot longer than people thought we would. Or did,” Krish adds.

“Why stop at Mars?” Dell asks, in a serious tone. Everybody else pauses. Anita and Krish both look at Dell.

“What?” Dell asks them, “Too soon? He’s to know at some point, right?” he finishes his sentence with a shrug.

“Why stop at Mars?” BC asks back, repeating the question more than asking it himself.

“That was Van Kilner’s question,” Krish says. “That’s what he asked way back when. We call it ‘the Big Question’.”

“The Big Question,” Dell emphasizes in his deep, somber voice.

“The UTZ Military needed to get back and forth between Earth and Mars,” Anita explains. “That’s why they hired Van Kilner to start The Project. The old mag loop highway was just too vulnerable, and too inconvenient. You could use it for fast travel between Earth orbit and Mars orbit, but depending on where the planets were in their orbits, just getting to the loops could be a real pain.”

“They needed a faster way, more convenient, less vulnerable to attack,” Dell says. “We gave them that: A better way to get to Mars. And that was all they wanted.”

“The military was going to shut The Project down afterwards,” Krish says.

“But then Van Kilner asked The Big Question,” Dell says. “Why stop at Mars?”

“Good question,” BC agrees. “But so far this is all pretty much public knowledge, from the history files,”

he says, “Common knowledge.”

“Except for the Big Question,” Dell says. “You see…”

“Dell, hold on, okay?” Anita asks, interrupting. Dell nods and sits back. “Campion,” she says to BC,

“This is just the beginning of a lot of, well… lots and lots of information we need to brief you on. We should wait.”

“Huh?” BC asks, confused. “Why wait?”

“Do you want to sit twisted in these chairs in this corridor for hours? Or would you rather find a comfortable conference room where we can talk to each other and not get stiff necks?” She asks. “I just didn’t want Dell to get rolling before seeing if we could move this down the hall,” Anita explains.

“Could we get something to eat?” BC asks. “Suddenly, I’m starving.”

“Look who’s feeling better!” Anita says. “Sure, I think we can arrange that. After knocking you out and pumping your stomach and all, it’s the least we can do.”

“The anti reactive is restoring your inner balance,” Krish assures BC.

“Let’s go, then,” Anita says. She stands up. “How about the West Side Room?” she asks Dell and Krish.

“That’s a great idea,” Dell says, agreeing. “You’ll like the view there,” he tells BC, “lots of windows looking out on deep space. Nice.”

BC is amused.

First he’s shooting me, then he’s playing tour guide. I’ll like the view, huh? Strange dude.
BC gets up. He follows the others as they head off down the corridor. He takes in the surroundings as they walk to the conference room.

Everything seems... smaller. Older than Lunar Prime. Well maintained, for sure, but older
designs, smaller passages. This base has been here for a while.

The walk takes them down four corridors as they twist and turn their way towards the West Side Room.

I feel all turned around… like, maybe we’re circling back to where we started? And where is
everybody else? There’s nobody here! Can’t be that thriving a place. Unless they’re shepherding
me along an unused or predetermined route that avoids contact with other people. Or maybe
these three are it! Maybe they are the whole “Project”! They could be insane… The Project could
be a figment of a fevered imagination, a product of… Huh?

“Are you coming, Campion?” Anita asks. She and the other two have gone ahead into what is presumably the West Side Room. BC’s stopped outside in the corridor.

“Last time I walked through one of your doors here, I got shot,” BC explains.

“No one’s going to shoot you,” Anita says with a hint of exasperation in her voice. “Come in here!”

BC walks through the door.

No one shoots him.

Three of the four walls of the room are entirely transparent. The three walls in front of him provide an unlimited view of the dark surface of the moon and the carpet of stars of deep space. White, exposed beams frame the roof, but the ceiling itself is also clear, and full of stars.
We’re definitely on the dark side of the Moon. That makes sense, given what they’ve told me.
What a view! I suppose it’s never really dark. The carpet of night is always filled with stars, far as
the eye can see…

Dell sees BC gazing out. “What did I tell you?” he says to him.

Well, gotta give it to him, I
do
like the view…

“Nice,” BC says, nodding.

“Have a seat, BC,” Anita says, indicating a chair at the oval table that dominates the room. The table is nearly as clear as the walls and ceiling, a translucent blue tint giving the surface an element of tangibility. The five chairs surrounding the table are covered in soft gray upholstery. BC crosses to the opposite side of the table and sits down facing the door.

“So,” BC asks, “Where is everybody?”

“What?” Anita asks.

“This place is nearly abandoned,” BC explains. “I didn’t see anybody else as we walked here. Where’s everybody else? This can’t be your main base. It isn’t, is it?” BC challenges her.
Or should I be asking her where the rest of her imaginary friends are? Or maybe she’ll ask me
why I didn’t see all those people we just passed in the halls. Then I’ll know they’re really insane...

“You’re pretty sharp, there, Campion,” Anita gives him credit. “We now only use this base for little side projects and such. And right now, you’re a little side project,” she says with a smirk. “I’m sorry if that deflates your over inflated sense of self worth,” she cracks.

“I see,” BC says.

And how am I supposed to take that?

Anita sits down at the table across from BC. Krish pulls up a chair at his left, Dell at his right.

“So... Why stop at Mars?” BC prompts them, not so much asking the question as repeating their earlier comment.

“Exactly,” Anita says.

“So… Your real base is out beyond Mars?” BC tries.

“
This
is a real base,” Anita says, defensively.

“Riiiight
,” BC answers sarcastically.

“Right boys?” she asks Dell and Krish.

“Right,” Krish snaps back.

“Sure it is,” Dell agrees.

“I thought it was truth telling time?” BC laments.

“The truth must be revealed layer by layer, unfolding like an onion,” Anita says, trying to sound deep.

“Trying to sound deep?” BC quips.

“Well, I’m impressed,” Krish pipes up.

“Shut up, Ghandi,” she needles Krish.

“Uh oh,” Krish says, “Musta hit a nerve! I only get the cute pet names when she’s really getting mad!”

Krish smiles.

Anita scowls at him, but Krish just keeps grinning.

“You know, this does remind me of an onion,” BC says, changing his tone, “Because, so far… this stinks!”

A moment of awkward silence follows his outburst.

“Man, you sure are a buzz killer,” Krish jokes to break the silence.

Dell sits quietly, looking on. He has been since the onion thing comment. BC glares at Anita.
I can play staredown with the best of them...

Krish looks back and forth, between them, from Anita to BC.

BC finally breaks his stare first. “Sorry,” he says, relenting. Anita shakes her head, and she relents. The tension dissipates.

“We have another base, in the asteroids,” Anita confesses. “Part of it is adapted from the ruins of an old alien base we found.”

“An
alien base
?” BC asks out loud, in shock.

This is bigger than I thought...

“Yes. We deal extensively with two major alien races, and know many others,” she tells him.

“Two?” BC asks.

“Two. The Flaze and The Domo. There are others out there, but our contact with them has been more limited,” she explains. “But The Flaze and The Domo have been around our part of the galaxy for a long time,” Anita says. “Longer than we have,” she adds. “We found an old abandoned Domo base when we got out to the asteroids. The Project built our base up and around the alien original.”

“We? You three?” BC wonders aloud.

“Not me, personally. Van Kilner, really,” Anita says. “He still leads The Project, BC. Van Kilner lives out in the asteroids, at the base, where the low gravity helps keep him alive.”

“Van Kilner’s alive? I thought he was dead!? Everybody thought he died, when he disappeared back... oh.”

BC gets it.

“He can’t return to even the Moon’s gravity, now,” Anita explains. “So he stays out there, and most of The Project is out there with him. We use this base as our local station, a place to keep our ‘flashers’ as you call them, and a base to work out of in the Earth system. This place, as you noted, isn’t exactly hopping. But this is where it all started, and we do still use it.”

“So much for the onion,” Dell says under his breath.

“That onion thing is all unraveled, huh?” Krish cracks to Anita.

BC sits, quietly stunned, trying to process the information just dumped on him.

“Okay. So. Van Kilner’s alive on a secret asteroid base, hanging with aliens. Why should I buy that?

Pretty wild story, if you ask me,” BC says. “Let’s hear more...”

“Not ‘hanging with aliens’…” Anita sighs. “Dell’s been with The Project the longest; he can tell you how it all start…” Anita says. Krish cuts her off.

“Boy genius, you know?” Krish interjects. He presses on. “Tell us about the early days of ‘The Project’

won’t you, Doctor Dundell?” Krish says to his tall friend in a mock news announcer voice. Anita shoots a nasty look at Krish.

Dell looks thoughtful

Mulling it over, is he?

“I joined what would become the “Transpace Project” when I was fourteen,” Dell begins. “I joined up with Van Kilner while he was still at Oxford, back in 2060. The Project and the Transpace Drive were just concepts, back then. It was an exciting time, a thrilling time,” Dell says, as if reciting a story he’s told many times before. “Van Kilner seemed like a god to me when I was fourteen.” Dell looks off into the distance.

He focuses back on BC. “Doctor Van Kilner is an amazing man. Demanding to work for, but unselfish in his rewards.” Dell looks at both Anita and Krish before looking back to BC to continue.

“He’ll ask the world of you… and expect it,” Dell muses, “but he’ll give you the world back in return. I’m proud to have worked for him, and with him, all of my life.”

Dell smiles. “Back at the start he was a famous academic, which was a rarity back then. Well... I suppose it still is.”

Anita interrupts to ask BC, “How much do you know about the history of Transpace?”

“Why? Is this a test?” BC laughs.

“I just don’t want Dell to have to tell you stuff you already know...”

“Anita, it’s all right. I don’t mind,” Dell says. “So long as you don’t?” he asks BC.

“Go ahead,” BC urges him on. “I have some of that common knowledge I mentioned, but a refresher course won’t hurt. Plus, I’m sure they left a lot out when they taught it in school.”

“Did you know Val Kilner started preliminary work on The Transpace Drive while he was still at Oxford in the sixties?” Dell asks BC.

BC tries to remember his history, to remember what he does know about Van Kilner and The Project.

“It began at Oxford?” BC asks as he tries. “Yeah, I kinda remember that. It was a regular company by the time the UTZ took it over though, wasn’t it? Was that in the 80s?”

“Van Kilner moved the company into the public sector in 2072,” Dell informs him. “That was also when he moved the entire operation here, to this base on the Moon. The UTZ provided essential capital and other backing for the move, and so The Project came under the auspices of the UTZ council from the time Van Kilner left Oxford,” Dell explains.

“But in 2082, with the UIN occupying Mars and the UTZ sending in troops, the UTZ Military decided it should take control of the Transpace Project. They stepped in and tried to force Van Kilner to the side. It was a bad year. Van Kilner nearly lost it, almost had a nervous breakdown. We had come so far!”

Dell says, shaking his head.

“We had a working model by ‘82! We’d already begun preliminary field testing,” he says. “Everything was happening so fast! Then this General Johnson arrives to inform us that he’s in charge,” Dell says, a sour look crossing his face. “He said Van Kilner must report to him!’ The General then installed a ranking officer over each manager in The Project. Dark days.”